In memory of all my hard-working friends who climbed the iron and built the city…

The Ironworker:

In 1950, Eleanor Roosevelt was sitting in a dentist chair in New York City and looking out an eighteenth-floor window:

“How much we usually take for granted about work of our fellow human beings! Somehow I had always thought of these huge skyscrapers as they are when finished, and had never before seen the skilled work and calm courage that goes into putting up the framework. Just walking across one beam to another is an amazing acrobatic feat of balance with sure death below if you lose you head for a minute. Here were men doing work that goes on day in and day out and is part of our daily lives, and I had never given a thought to the extraordinary skill and physical ability required to carry it through successfully. I shall be grateful to these men in the future, and have a better understanding of what this kind of work requires.”

(Source: Ironworkers 100th Anniversary, 1896-1996; A History of the Ironworkers Union.)